SAN RAMON, Calif.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has
issued a ruling dismissing the climate change lawsuits filed against
Chevron Corporation by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland. The
court dismissed the complaint as requiring foreign and domestic policy
decisions that are outside the proper purview of the courts.

As the court described, “the scope of plaintiffs’ theory is
breathtaking. It would reach the sale of fossil fuels anywhere in the
world, including all past and otherwise lawful sales.”

“It is true,” the court continued, “that carbon dioxide released from
fossil fuels has caused (and will continue to cause) global warming. But
against that negative, we must weigh this positive: our industrial
revolution and the development of our modern world has literally been
fueled by oil and coal. Without these fuels, virtually all of our
monumental progress would have been impossible. All of us have
benefitted. Having reaped the benefit of that historic progress, would
it really be fair to now ignore our own responsibility in the use of
fossil fuels and place the blame for global warming on those who
supplied what we demanded? Is it really fair, in light of those
benefits, to say that the sale of fossil fuels was unreasonable?”

The court concluded by dismissing the claims and deferring to the policy
judgments of the legislative and executive branches of the federal
government: “The dangers raised in the complaints are very real. But
those dangers are worldwide. Their causes are worldwide. The benefits of
fossil fuels are worldwide. The problem deserves a solution on a more
vast scale than can be supplied by a district judge or jury in a public
nuisance case. While it remains true that our federal courts have
authority to fashion common law remedies for claims based on global
warming, courts must also respect and defer to the other co-equal
branches of government when the problem at hand clearly deserves a
solution best addressed by those branches.”

“Reliable, affordable energy is not a public nuisance but a public
necessity,” said R. Hewitt Pate, Chevron’s vice president and general
counsel. “Tackling the difficult international policy issues of climate
change requires honest and constructive discussion. Using lawsuits to
vilify the men and women who provide the energy we all need is neither
honest nor constructive.”

The court’s decision dismisses a lawsuit that the cities of San
Francisco and Oakland filed against BP, Chevron, Conoco-Phillips,
ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, seeking to hold a selected group of
oil and gas companies responsible for the potential effects of global
climate change. The suit, filed in 2017, claims that the production and
sale of oil and gas are a public nuisance because they result in
greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to worldwide climate change and
rising sea levels. The U.S. Supreme Court and other courts around the
country have previously rejected similar claims brought by the same
lawyers. Those courts—like the court today—found that our nation’s
environmental policies must be determined by national policymakers like
the Environmental Protection Agency, not courts of law.

Several other U.S. cities and counties, including New York City and King
County, Washington, recently filed nearly identical cases against the
same oil and gas companies. Many were filed by the same lawyers. The
energy companies have filed motions to dismiss those cases as well. As
Chevron has repeatedly emphasized in its court filings, Chevron supports
meaningful efforts to address climate change and accepts internationally
recognized climate science, but climate change is a global issue that
requires global engagement, not lawsuits. Chevron is taking prudent,
practical and cost-effective actions to mitigate potential climate
change risks, including managing emissions, testing new technologies,
and increasing efficiency.

Chevron Corporation is one of the world's leading integrated energy
companies. Through its subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide, the
company is involved in virtually every facet of the energy
industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and
natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and
lubricants; manufactures and sells petrochemicals and additives;
generates power; and develops and deploys technologies that enhance
business value in every aspect of the company's operations. Chevron is
based in San Ramon, Calif. More information about Chevron is available
at www.chevron.com.

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